Train To Newcastle
by SkinnyLittleSlut
Summary: Part 2 to The Only Oxygen That I Need, read that first.


**A/N: there will be a part 2, and this is all based on what really happened.**

"Hey Rem."

"Rem."

"Remus!"

Remus jerked awake, his eyes snapping open.

He gasped in shock, grabbing his wand as he took in the dark figure in front of him.

"Lumos." he growled, and then gasped as the light illuminated the angular edges of Sirius' face in front of him.

"Sirius!"

Remus dropped his wand and grabbed the figure in front of him in a tight hug.

"Hey Rem." Sirius muttered, allowing Remus to drag him down onto the bed next to him.

Remus noticed how scratchy Sirius' voice sounded, and how the words seemed to catch in his throat as he spoke them.

Sirius groaned, putting his arms over his head and closing his eyes.

"Sirius what the hell happened?!"

"I ran away." Sirius said in a low voice, chuckling slightly and triggering a bad cough.

Remus patted his shoulder, pulling him up into a more upright position.

"I think I'm sick." he murmured grudgingly.

Sirius would never admit he was sick, usually in a complete state of denial until the illness got so bad he couldn't move, so Remus know he was serious.

"Tell me what happened." Remus murmured, running his hands soothingly through Sirius' messy hair.

Sirius groaned again.

"Well, I got all the way to Newcastle. Robbed some money from my mother, stayed on the train. And I kissed a prostitute."

Remus sighed in exasperation.

"A prostitue Sirius? Really? You don't get enough already, without resorting to..ahem, paid services?"

"I didn't know she was a prostitute, git." Sirius moaned, breaking off to cough some more. "Just a hot girl on a train. But then she started talking about how her 'man' dropped her, and she needed someone new, to 'keep her in line'. Shit myself when I realised she was talking about a pimp, course. Told her I'd be right back and got off on the next stop. I ended up in Newcastle, ran some, and then passed out on the street. Next thing I remember was waking up in some third-world hospital, freezing cold and dark as hell. Some doctor told me I had glandular fever or something."

"From the..woman?"

"Yes, Rem, probably from the prostitute."

"So then what happened?" Remus sighed.

"I got the hell outta there. Found the nearest magic settling, stole some Floo Powder from the shop, got here through the fireplace in the common room couple minutes ago."

"Oh, Sirius."

Remus shook his head, pulling out bits of gravel and soot from Sirius' long hair.

Sirius fell asleep soon after, his arms still over his pale face.

Remus pulled the covers up past his chin, untangling his bony forearms and putting them under the blankets too. He hesitated, then slipped out of bed, stealing the quilt from Sirius' bed and adding that to the pile on his bed. He then fell asleep next to Sirius.

* * *

"Remusss."

For the second time in three hours, Remus was awoken by Sirius' scratchy voice, only this time it sounded a lot worse.

"What's wrong Padfoot." Remus groaned, clenching shut his eyelids again.

"I..I can't move m' neck."

Remus threw the quilt up, both of them, jumped up and went to examine Sirius.

"Sirius..we need to go to the hospital wing."

Sirius gave Remus the thumbs up from one hand, his face contorted in pain.

Remus pulled Sirius up, careful to support his neck, and left the dormitory.

* * *

"Bacterial meningitis? Wizards can get that?"

"Yes Mr. Lupin. Wizards are just as susceptible to Muggle ailments as they are themselves."

Madame Pomfrey was hurrying around the bedside, pushing Sirius' bony knees up to his chest and pulling the gown up to expose his protruding vertebrae. She tutted at Sirius' obvious malnourishment, and covered the majority of his back with a blue sheet, fixed with a square hole. Dipping a sponge in orange liquid she had explained was iodine, Madame Pomfrey covered the still-exposed area with it, and inserted a needle into his back.

Sirius groaned faintly when she withdrew it.

"That was all?" he muttered. "That wasn't soo bad…"

"That was just the anaesthetic, Mr. Black. I have yet to do the actual procedure."

"Fuckk." he whispered.

* * *

"The tests have confirmed that Mr. Black does indeed have a severe case of bacterial meningitis." Madame Pomfrey informed Remus.

He was slumped down next to an unconscious Sirius' bed, wearing his pyjama bottoms and an old hoodie of Sirius' which was much too big for him.

"So what now?" he asked tiredly.

"I will treat him with antibiotics." she said shortly, taking one of Sirius's forearms.

She sighed when she caught sight of the many thick scars littering his pale skin.

"I have to find a vein uncompromised by scar tissue." she informed him, shaking her head and reaching for his other arm.

Sirus' malnourishment made all of his veins rather visible, and thankfully, Madame Pomfrey was able to find a long, straight one mainly avoided by the scars. She snapped an elastic tourniquet around his forearm to made the already protruding vein bulge, and cleaned it with a swab, before gently inserting the needle into the vein, pushing it in a little, and then removing it and replacing with the IV tube, hanging the bag.

"He should recover well." Madame Pomfrey nodded.

* * *

Ironically, Remus was watching the heart monitor machine when Sirius went into cardiac arrest.

He was unable to sleep, and found watching the steady beat of Sirius' heartbeat calmed him slightly.

Until it became irregular, and his O2 began to decline rapidly.

He wasn't sure exactly what happened after the machine flatlined, because time seemed to freeze.

Madame Pomfrey pushed him out of the way and dragged the curtain across, and he just stood there, staring at her silhouette as she moved.

In reality, it was probably only five minutes until the curtain was drawn again. But it made no difference to Remus; for all he knew, it could have been five years.

The only things his mind could register was the horrible, sad look on Madame Pomfrey's face. And the fact that Sirius' hoodie still smelled like the cologne he drowned himself in.

* * *

"Sirius had an allergic reaction to the penicillin I used to treat his meningitis. I have given him steroids to treat the reaction, but he can no longer breathe on his own. I've had to insert a breathing tube."

Remus nodded, letting out the breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding. Sirius was okay, he just needed help with breathing. So why did Madame Pomfrey still look so grave.

"I'm afraid there's more bad news, Mr. Lupin."

Remus clenched his eyes shut, sinking back down into his seat and bracing himself for what was to come.

"Sirius' fever rose to 101. His body can no longer fight the infection on it's own. So I've had to medically induce a coma to help his body recover. And Mr. Lupin…there is a good chance that Sirius may never be able to breathe on his own again."

Remus shook his head violently. He leapt up, a crazy look in his eyes, and met the sad look in Madame Pomfrey's.

"I-if I send Peter and James down…can you explain it to them?"

Madame Pomfrey nodded, resting her hand on Remus' shoulder. He shrugged it off, and took off running out of the hospital wing.

* * *

He felt guilty about leaving Sirius like he had, but James and Peter were there now.

He supposed he could have done a better job explaining to them what had happened, but the only words he could get out were "Sirius- hospital wing. Coma." before his mind just went blank and he took off running again.

He'd gone round the school twice before he felt on the verge of collapse, and headed back to the now-empty dormitories and sunk into Sirius' bed. He closed his eyes and let sleep claim him.

* * *

"Can you just tell Sirius that I miss him, and I hope he wakes up soon, Madame Pomfrey?"

Madame Pomfrey led Remus over to a chair, putting a hand on his shoulder, tears of sadness filling her dark eyes.

"Remus…Sirius died yesterday. He's being buried in two weeks."

Remus leapt up, knocking his chair over.

"No. No. Nonononono. No. You're lying. This isn't happening. No!" Remus shrieked, tears dripping from his cheeks. He tore off down the ward, through the doors, down the corridor and stopped at the bottom of the stairs, sinking down, burying his head in his hands and sobbing violently.

_He's dead. My best friend is dead. I'm never going to see him again. He'll never laugh again. Or smile, and I'll never get to say goodbye because I wasn't there, and he's gone forever._

* * *

Remus awoke with a jerk, a tear slipping down his face. He desperately took in his surroundings.

He was in the dormitories. It was all a dream, just a horrible, awful dream.

A dream that could come true at any moment.

Remus pulled himself up, grabbing his cigarettes from the dresser and going out of the door, all the way across the castle, and heading out of the front door to chain-smoke the entire packet.

* * *

"I'm pleased to tell you that Mr. Black is now breathing on his own again. His fever has gone down radially, and I should be able to wake him up in a matter of hours, if all continues to go well."

* * *

"Remmmm."

"Shh, don't talk Sirius." Remus whispered, gently running his hand across one of Sirius' sunken cheekbones. He smiled tearfully as Sirius opened his eyes slightly, and then hissed at the harsh daylight filtering through.

"You were put in a coma for the meningitis, and you stopped breathing. She had to tube you for three days, and you were in a coma." Remus explained in a low tone, aware of the snoring James next to him.

Sirius nodded, wincing in pain, and closed his eyes again, already worn out from the energy of staying conscious.

"Go to sleep Sirius. I'll still be here when you wake up." Remus whispered.


End file.
